I agree, the marine finish is poor and would not have purchased it had I known. Mine has all the Magpul furniture and I sold my Benelli M4 to buy the 1301. I much prefer the 1301, it is so much lighter making it easier for me to handle.

As I bought mine for about $1000 years ago I would probably just buy the A300 today given the price difference.

Wow! Since this thread has came back to life, Yes, I picked up the 1301 Mod2 Tactical.
I tossed a good MagPul sling and an Inforce light on it.
I was able to get a velcro side-saddle, instead of the GG&G. So far, so good; I like that I can load up a handful of Velcro strips, toss them in my pocket, and toss them on when needed. The glue is holding up well.

I don’t know exactly, but 750 rounds would be a good estimate, and it’s holding up perfectly.
I haven’t looked into another barrel yet, but it’s on the short-list of things to get.

In early July, I took my daughter shooting with me and she asked to try shotguns while we were there. She has some time on 20 ga autos but no experience with 12 ga like my friend and I had with us. I had a recently acquired side by side double barrel and my friend had a recently acquired Beretta 1301 Tactical LE model. At the end of the day we all preferred the soft shooting 1301 that shot every cartridge we fed it. My daughter later commented that she would shoot a 1301 again as she enjoyed it. Therefore, I was morally obligated to buy a 1301 Tactical Mod 2 yesterday.

I have various Aridus and GG&G 1301 upgrade parts I don't need if anyone is interested.

My Tactical now has the Gen 2 Aridus adapters for Magpul furniture, Nordic extension, Scalarworks ACRO mount, and Gen 2 ACRO.

https://www.beretta.com/en-us/rebates

If anyone is on the fence about a 1301, there is a $150 cash or $300 Beretta bucks rebate going currently.

I dipped hard into autos.

The issue with autos is load.

A pump will run everything that the chamber will cycle.

An auto needs either enough inertia or gas. Make sure you run enough of your shells to know they work.

My preference is the M2, but Mossbergs offering is good. The 1301 is the softest shooting. This also means dirty. Dirty isn't that dirty for a shotgun.. But you can run the M2 like a $2 whore comparatively.

People always trumpet "reliability" when it comes to pump shotguns. OK bub, it's reliable if you don't panic. Shotguns seem to be even more of a "solution" than other guns you might buy.. No, you need to practice.

So you don't short stroke your pump, or find yourself racking untested ammo out of your auto.

YMMV